The present invention relates to bedding for livestock and more particularly to bedding using fluid to provide cushioning and support for large animals such as cows or horses.
Humans have long kept large domesticated animals for food, dairy production, transportation and recreation. Livestock that are well kept and content can produce more food and last longer as work animals. Providing comfort to these animals during rest and sleep is essential for keeping them content and productive. To that end, farmers have used bedding materials such as straw or sand for their livestock. The bedding provides a cushion for support and warmth thereby comforting the animals. However, the use of straw or sand for bedding has a serious drawback in that those materials have a tendency to retain the livestock's excreted waste products. Further, these beddings, especially sand, are moved and scattered by an animal's use such that they must be groomed or rearranged as often as every day to provide a comfortable and supportive bed for the animal. The need to groom these types of bedding every day and completely replace them for hygienic reasons every few days constitutes a high cost in labor and replacement materials for the farmer. Therefore, other types of bedding for livestock have been developed.
Flexible rubber matting and filled mattresses have emerged as bedding for livestock. The use of rubber matting under a bedding material such as straw or sand may reduce the quantity of the material used and may ease cleaning but does not eliminate the problems detailed above.
Mattresses filled with various fillers such as flaked rubber or foam have been used as bedding. However, flaked rubber filled mattresses are very heavy and difficult to move and position, and deform and deteriorate with use. Large amounts of manpower or machinery are needed to place the mattresses for use and remove the mattresses for general cleaning. In contrast, molded foam and foam filled mattresses are lighter and more easily moved, but also deform and deteriorate over time. After continual use by a heavy animal, the foam begins to retain the shape of the animal and becomes less supportive and loses its cushioning effect. In response to these shortcomings, other filled beds have been developed.
Specifically, water or fluid filled beds have been disclosed. For instance, Bristow U.S. Pat. No. 6,152,077 discloses a fluid filled bed for livestock. The Bristow patent discloses placing a flexible sheet on top of another flexible sheet. These sheets are then bonded together around the edges creating a bladder that can be filled with water. Once filled with water, the bladder takes on a convex pillow-like shape. This shape allows waste from the animals to migrate to the margins of the bed and allows the bed to be easily hosed clean. The outer surfaces of the flexible sheets are rough to provide a non-slip surface on which the livestock steps.
Further, the bladder is filled to a water pressure such that when an animal steps on the top of the bed, the animal's foot will press the top surface down to come in contact with the bottom surface supported by the underlying floor to provide stable footing for the animal. The Bristow patent further provides that the water pressure is also such that once the animal lies down, the water will support substantially all of its body parts. Thus, the Bristow patent discloses a waterbed for livestock that provides comfort to the animal and is easy to clean while eliminating the need for straw.
However, it has been found that, in practice, waterbeds for livestock constructed according to the Bristow patent have significant limitations. Large animals initially kneel down on their front knees in the process of lying down and rising to stand. At the water pressure/volume required to allow an animal's foot to easily push the bladder top surface into contact with the bottom surface and the floor for stable footing, the animal's knees will also create point loadings which will push the top surface into contact with the bottom surface and the floor when the animal drops to its knees to lay down or shifts its weight to its knees to stand up. The knees of livestock are one of the more sensitive parts of their bodies and dropping their knees down on the firm surface of the sheets against the floor may cause knee damage over time.
Also, while the Bristow patent discloses that the water pressure/volume will both provide stable footing to an animal and support substantially all of the animal's body while lying on the bed, this is often not the case in practice. If a fluid pressure is used that will actually support substantially all parts of an animal's body while lying down, the animal's foot may not easily push the top surface into contact with the bottom surface to secure stable footing. This can cause the animal, which is inherently unstable, to lose confidence in its ability to walk on the bed and dissuade the animal from using the bed. More importantly, the fluid pressure necessary to “float” substantially all parts of the animal's body can cause the animal to be unsteady and even to roll on to its back with its legs extending at an angle upward from the horizontal floor, a position from which livestock cannot recover without human intervention.
What is needed is a bed for livestock that, when filled with fluid, has the advantage of a convex shape to facilitate cleaning and contains a fluid pressure that provides a walking animal with solid footing yet cushions a kneeling animal's knees, and provides fluid support primarily for the more sensitive parts of the animal, principally the knees, hocks and udder, but stable support for the trunk of the animal, while lying down.